Quiet provocation – Weekend

An exhibition dedicated to hair has opened at the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts. Or rather, so – dedicated to hair in different places of the human body, because in French, unlike Russian, there are two different words for them. Therefore, the elegant French title of the exhibition “Des cheveux et des poils” is translated into Russian by the somewhat ponderous “On the hair on the head and on the body.” Conceived not without research ambitions, it instantly turned into a popular hit, because it strives with all its might to entertain the audience above all.

Text: Elena Stafieva

Of course, when an exhibition with this name opens in one of the main Parisian museums, and the work of Naro Pinosa is used as its poster, where the classic aristocratic male portrait of the 17th century by Jacob Ferdinand Foote is mounted with a modern photograph of a beefy, hairy male body, this is almost ready hit. On the other hand, it is difficult to make a truly research exhibition project if you undertake to cover the period of Western European (or, as they say in the release, Judeo-Christian) culture from the 14th century to our time. It is no less difficult to make it conceptual, so here the curators of the exhibition limit themselves to stating the obvious: “A hairstyle in a certain form can indicate belonging to a certain group and allows political and cultural self-expression as opposed to society and the established order. More ideological than aesthetic, the mohawk of punks, the casualness of grunge followers or the shaved heads of skinheads are powerful creative moments associated with hair. However, nothing meaningful about these “strong creative moments” is ever told to us, and the exhibition remains a collection of more or less curious moments related to hair. And the main question, of course, is how entertaining they are.

Arranged chronologically, despite the playfully thematic titles, again hinting at some conceptualism, “Des cheveux et des poils” is made in the genre of “but then it was still such a miracle.” And there are a lot of these outlandish things, from the point of view of a modern person: wigs, a whole wall of wigs and more wigs, hairpins, all kinds of combs and aigrettes, hair ornaments, characteristic of the sentimental Victorian cult, from the simplest medallions with a curl, braided rings and bracelets to whole paintings made exclusively from natural hair of different shades, the work of contemporary artists with hair and so on.

In places, this arrangement of the same type of objects begins to tire, and in front of a showcase with a dozen devices for mustaches and beards – tweezers, hooks, scissors, fondants and several cups with special sides – even an interested viewer begins to lose focus. Here the exhibition about hair resembles an exhibition about shoes, the previous hit of the same kind in 2019 at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, where showcases with dozens of pairs of shoes, behind which no curatorial idea was visible, but only a quantitative scope, quickly tired. But hair, of course, is more fun than shoes, and the task of entertainment is clearly better done here.

Entertainment begins right in the first hall – they show a video where the mid-18th century coufure, male and female, as well as the female coufure of the 20s and 30s of the 19th century are reproduced – and to see on living people, and not on engravings and pictures of how all these wigs, hairpieces, linings, ribbons, feathers and beads were fitted are not only entertaining, but also quite informative. The video, mounted from the works of Naro Pinosa, where they show imaginary bodies under the clothes of characters, male and female, from historical portraits is not just entertaining, but fun. The reconstruction of the intricate hairstyles of Empress Sisi – on mannequins, a whole line – is quite witty. Especially next to her home portrait by Franz Winterhalter, in desabil and with fluffy, unnaturally long hair (which is said to be so indecent that it was intended exclusively for the private quarters of Emperor Franz Joseph). There are also quite simple ideas, for example, the decoration of a toilet room, where the outlines of various historical hairstyles are pasted on the mirrors: you sit on an ottoman in front of the mirror, fit your head under the contour of the hairstyle and take a selfie – and this also causes a certain enthusiasm among the audience.

Of course, here we can say that this exhibition could do, but does not. For example, it does not justify the provocative nature of the word “des poils” in its title, without going beyond the well-known “The Origin of the World” by Courbet – and this is where a real research project would turn out. Or on the second floor, dedicated to the 20th and 21st centuries, after all those drying and curling machines that look like torture devices, where it finally comes to fashion, they show outfits made of hair and hair inspired in one way or another. Sonia Rykiel, Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela, Josephus Thimister, Vivienne Westwood and others. They are chosen with exceptional decorative clarity and do not add up to any plot – and after all, it would seem that only Margela’s hair obsession, which remained for his whole life from his childhood spent in his father’s hairdressing salon, is worth something. And in general, hair in fashion, with all its Jungian-Freudian symbolism, directly appeals to conceptualization. But no, the exhibition remains exclusively in the descriptive and decorative perimeter.

But, I must say, the Parisian public feels quite comfortable in it – that is, the curators, headed by Denis Bruna, the main custodian of fashion and textile collections until 1800, know their audience well. Therefore, here is the main advice – if you are going to the exhibition “Des cheveux et des poils”, book tickets online and avoid weekends at all costs so that you do not have to squeeze through the ranks of Parisian old ladies exclaiming “ca, c’est magnifique!” to each window, and endlessly maneuvering between girls and boys making videos for their instagrams and tiktok.

Musee des Arts Decoratifs, until 17 September

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